Microsoft Power BI Reviews

We are a consultant company, so we use BI for project follow-up, sales and pipeline. We are partners with Microsoft and I'm the company's client director.

I like that implementation is very quick and that the solution is very user-friendly and easy to work with. The solution has provided us with speedy insight and faster effects on the table. It's a smooth product. 

I think that automation could be improved and performance enhanced. Documentation for developers could also be improved. 

The solution is stable. 

Scalability is very good. It can be pricey to move to the P1 licenses for $5,000 a month for smaller companies, but there are workarounds using A1 to A6 licenses which are cheaper and more flexible in the pricing. We have 50 users in the company. 

When we deployed five years ago, the setup was very complex. Since then, it's become much easier. 

Compared to competitors like Tableau, Microsoft BI is not so expensive.

I recommend this solution. Microsoft BI has matured a lot in the last year.

I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

In our sector, we're dealing with lots of FinDocs and routine FinDoc activities. So all these things are managed locally, with data coming from some secondary source. By that, I mean our in-house technicians provide a data service that is locally developed on our end, and we analyze data in Microsoft Power BI. We have about 10 to 12 users working with it.

Microsoft BI is better than most solutions we have. It's pretty easy to conduct analysis with it.

Microsoft needs to do some more research and development to make it more stable.

We've been using Microsoft BI for about six months.

I think Microsoft BI is scalable.

We have some technical partners from Microsoft, so we contact them for any issues.

Installing Microsoft BI is fast and easy. We just downloaded it from Microsoft. That's it. It only takes about half an hour. It takes a little longer for the overall deployment, depending on the data volume. If we're getting the data from a secondary source, it depends upon both the source and volume. The greater the volume, the greater the time. Usually, we can manage to get it done in one or two hours plus the testing. It takes around four people to deploy and manage the solution.

We haven't thought much about licensing because we're still dealing with some administrative hang-ups. Once all these things are resolved, then we go for the license. It is in process.

I rate Microsoft BI six out of 10. I would recommend it.

We were using Microsoft BI but it could not do what we wanted it to do. Then we moved to an open-source platform, which was Apache Tika, Kafka, and third solution. We ended up moving back to Power BI only to display the information because displaying information with Power BI is better than open-source software. We are not using all aspects of the solution at the moment.

In the process of using data there is the Extract, Transform and Load (ETL). For extracting we are using another software, for transforming we are using our own coding in C#, and then we use Microsoft BI for loading the information. Microsoft BI displays information very well.

The solution could improve the extraction and transformation of data. For example, you transform the data and then send it to Microsoft BI without having to use your own API. We are only providing the API to Power BI, and then Power BI is doing the job.

In an upcoming release, Microsoft BI should increase the functionality of the solution.

I have been using Microsoft BI for approximately six years.

We were satisfied with the stability of Microsoft BI.

We have 30 users using the solution in my organization.

We are in contact with the support of Microsoft but I have not been in contact directly.

I have used other solutions, such as Apache Tika and Kafka.

The initial setup was straightforward.

The solution only needs one person to do the maintenance.

There are a few options available for purchasing a license. Typically the number of users you have will determine the price of the license. The more users you have the more you will pay.

The solution has had a lot of changes over the years and it is very good. However, there is more work to be done on extract and transform functions for it to be done properly.

I rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

We use it mainly for Qlik Sense. We're using business interests analytics. Everyone from marketing to sales uses it. Microsoft BI is usually used for oversight.

Microsoft BI is easy and but not very user-friendly. But you can directly connect it to an Excel file. You can find out how many sites to look at and do it yourself directly. The Microsoft Power BI app is very good. It's also very flexible. 

The dashboard could be simplified. The service is currently good, but it could be better. If you compare it to Tableau and Qlik Sense, they are doing much better work. The ability of their dashboards is much better. The technical part is easy in Qlik Sense, where we can do some coding. It isn't easy in Power-BI.

Microsoft BI can be more user-friendly. Scalability is also a challenge for us because it's difficult to handle Power BI's dashboard.

I have been using Microsoft BI for the last four years.

Microsoft BI is a stable solution. We haven't had any issues yet.

It's not very scalable because it's difficult to manage the Microsoft BI dashboard.

Technical support is good.

The initial setup is very easy.

Their price is good.

I would recommend this product to potential users. But if they have options, I would recommend one of the others.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Microsoft BI a six.

The primary use case for this solution is mirroring it to the dock so we can match up different parts of Office like Excel, Word, etc. and then we can clear it.

Microsoft always believes in adding different features. We did have some issues building the Microsoft blog.

We were having trouble working with the icons.

The Microsoft tech support blog was very helpful to me. But, it supports the non-BI people also.

I was not involved with implementation of the product.

I do not have a comment on the pricing of the solution.

Power Query, Power Pivot, Power View & SQL Server Data Tools comprising of (SSIS, SSAS, SSRS).

Data integration enabled my organization to easily pool data from our varied system into one data warehouse.

SSRS improved our report delivery timings and the Power BI feature empowered the data users.

Power View improved the visualization of our reporting and dashboards.

SSMS & SSRS.

For over five years.

Yes.

Yes, SSRS reporting portal cannot run on tablets, iPads and all other mobile devices. But SQL 2016 has been shipped with this capability.

Microsoft has a lot of products, hence some products are given little attention and VS is one of them, so I would say their technical support for the BI suite is average.

No.

The initial setup was fairly simple and straight forward, I must say.

To others, I would advise that Microsoft BI products are rightly priced and the licensing is easy to follow and to fulfill.

Yes, Tableau.

For users intending to use the product in exclusively Microsoft environment, this product will meet most of your requirement if not all.

If there is a need for integration with other vendors’ products precautionary measures must be taken.

SQL 2016 is bringing and offering that support for mobile BI, so it would be great to give it a try.

If you are comfortable with MS Excel spreadsheets, then Power BI is your thing as it has the same look and feel of Excel, actually, it is embedded in Excel.

Microsoft SQL Server Report Publisher

Microsoft SQL Server Report Builder

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (Web Portal)

SQL Server 2016 delivers built-in mobile BI capabilities.  The above tools give professionals the ability to deliver business insights quickly and easily as well as enabling a quick way of presenting the data/charts/reports over a web portal.  The portal is compatible for cross platform, from desktops to major mobile devices.

Overall a great way of delivering your insights to your data.

Works with data, systems and tools we already have. They are "additional" tools rather than complete replacement software.  Easy to upgrade / install.  The new SSRS tools in particular give us an easier way to share insights and reports to our clients and within our own teams.  Security is easily managed within SharePoint.

License fee structure.  Mobile reporting Services is only available for the "Enterprise" addition of SQL Server 2016.  This comes with a hefty price tag.  Would be better if you could pick and choose the features you require and then the price tag is set accordingly.  Rather than paying for the full Enterprise addition and getting a lot of features we do not need/use.  

We have been using Microsoft's extensive software library for years.  But at the time of writing this review, SQL Server 2016 Enterprise is pretty brand new.  We knew of the latest reporting services offering and were eager to trial it.

Deployment isn't rocket science, but it isn't child's play either.  There were a fair few standard issues getting everything to talk to each other.  Nothing to worry about though.  Microsoft has worked well to make sure the latest SSRS is an "add-on" feature that integrates seamlessly. 

Straightforward easy setup.  Typical Microsoft software (familiar).

I am a reseller for Sage business solutions and will start to sell Microsoft BI.

Microsoft BI is primarily used for sales, financial, and production reports.

I believe that it's a good solution. 

It is not an expensive solution. The price is very important in the solution selection process. In my opinion, Microsoft BI is a low-cost solution, and it could be an interesting solution for a tourism company.

I have been using Microsoft BI for a few months.

As a cloud solution, we are always working with the latest version.

In our company, we have five users.

The price is an important consideration when upgrading or adding new users. In my opinion, it would be better for the price to be degressive by the user. For example, if you have five users, you simply multiply five by the unit price to find the total cost of the solution. 

I believe the price should be degressive, and we should have a lower, or better unit price if we have more users.

I hadn't really needed Microsoft's technical support until now. We have not had any issues to resolve.

The installation is not a difficult thing, it is very simple.

We only need one IT manager, to deploy this solution.

Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis.

I would recommend this solution to others who are considering this solution, which is the reason that I will be selling it.

I would rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.